Greenie
by Funtum
Summary: Mazer Rackham's first few days in the MOPs. Chapter one: Your enemy's Sniper; Chapter two: Strategos will have our heads; Chapter three: At least you'll be dead too; Chapter four; You don't have to thank us. All characters belong to Orson Scott Card.
1. Your Enemy's Sniper

Mazer hopped the fence, slapping a spider pad against the guard posted behind it. He ran towards a window on the side of the facility, holding his assault rifle across his chest.

The facility was large, with windows every few meters across. It was painted beige, though most of the paint had rusted off, leaving the building a mess of brown and steel grey. The window Mazer was headed for had shattered a while ago, and glass decorated the ground in front of it. A few broken helicopters lay around, looking ominous under the pale light of the moon.

A bullet flew towards Mazer, bouncing off his AR. He immediately flung the weapon down, hearing a static hiss a half-second later. He whipped out his pistol, and fired a few rounds to the roof. As he tucked it back into his belt, he heard a muffled shout from above when a bullet found its mark.

He jumped through the window, landing in a couch with his assault rifle aimed at the door. When nobody came through it, he examined his surroundings. It seemed to be some sort of office; there was a file cabinet in a corner, a desk dominating the center of the room, and (bingo!) a couple of illumination grenades by the door. Mazer picked them up, walked into the hallway, and began jogging to the stairs.

A thump from behind him, and soon the clack a soldiers boots as he kept pace with Mazer.

"Deen."

"Greenie."

No other greeting was needed; the two soldiers had already been briefed separately and knew where their objective lay. The pair climbed the stairs, cringing at the hollow, metallic sound of buckling metal.

Right before they reached the door at the top of the stairwell, Mazer tossed an Illumination grenade. He got a brief flash of the outside's contents; two men posted farther down the hall, turning towards the light source. When they caught sight of the two soldiers, they fired a few shots. Mazer and Deen weren't there. They had already slipped, unnoticed, into the room opposite them. Mazer turned the lights on. A figure stood in the middle of the room.

"Good job," Wit said, turning around. "But next time, Mazer, your enemy's sniper would not have missed."


	2. Strategos will have Our Heads

The four of them sat at a large table in a large building in Berlin.

"So," Wit said, "I'm betting you want to know why you're here."

"Naw," Calinga replied, "I just love being called at two in the morning and flying to Germany from Sydney right after."

"At least you were occupied, flying the HERC and all," Mazer yawned, "I had to spend the time playing computer games just so I wouldn't fall back asleep."

"Ok," Deen muttered, "I'll bite. I'm guessing we're here because Russia's troops in the New Warsaw Pact are demanding that Germany send its air force to China, so they can help fend off the formics. The German leaders, of course, aren't going to send a single man to China until the Chinese request it, which we all know will never happen. So we're probably here to prevent infighting among the two countries.

"Actually," Wit replied, "we're here to encourage it."

Everybody stared at him.

"Are you all ready this stupid? It's no secret that Warsaw thinks they're the world's rightful leaders. If we can get Germany to leave it, then Warsaw loses about half its power, and Russia is free to attack the landers in China."

"Ah," Calinga replied, "and then Strategos will have our heads for starting an unnecessary war in the middle of an alien invasion, right?"

"Well," Wit answered, "I took the liberty of forging your resignations from the MOP's, right after borrowing a few hundred thousand dollars from our bank in London."

"My god, this guy's good," whispered Mazer.


	3. At least You'll be dead, too

"Deen, do you have the bomb?"

It was the middle of the night on the streets of Berlin. It was supposed to be a stealth mission, with Deen planting the bomb and Mazer keeping watch outside.

"No, I forgot it and didn't tell you so I wouldn't hurt your feelings."

The idea was to get into the factory, plant the dud, and escape campus as soon as possible.

"I love you too, Deen."

"Oh, shut up. You're not the one carrying twenty pounds of explosives through a building in the dead of night."

"Have you frogotten that it can't explode?"

"It can't explode by _electronic_ means. If I drop it, we're both dead."

"I feel so warm and fuzzy inside. But if you do drop it, I'll murder you."

"You can't murder me if you're dead."

"At least you'll be dead, too."


	4. You don't have to thank us

Wit and Calinga left the helicopter around twelve thirty at night.

"Why are we here again, captain?"

"Shh," Wit hissed as they approached the building that housed Germany's Military Counter-intelligence Service. They walked inside, a security camera whirring as it processed and saved the pictures of their faces in the computer held behind it.

"Remember," Wit had told Calinga a few minutes before, "We'll only have a few minutes before the cameras classify us as ex-MOPs. Then somebody high up will want to see us."

The secretary smiled at them. "May I help you?" she asked in German.

"Yes," Wit replied in the same language, "somebody has planted a bomb at ACME games about, oh, thirty minutes ago?"

"I'm sorry, but-"

"No, you don't have to thank us. Just make sure whoever did it is caught. Bye!"

The pair walked away, looking like two friends headed for McDonalds, leaving the secretary there with a puzzled expression on her face.

Ten minutes later, they heard the sirens. But they were already in the air, headed for ACME games to pick up Mazer and Deen.


End file.
